CHIEF URGES OFFICERS BE DISCIPLINED

The acting police chief has recommended reprimands or counseling, or both, for six officers he said showed poor judgment the night of a fatal car crash involving a state trooper.

"No laws have been broken. There has been no clear-cut violation of any rule of conduct," Edwin B. Mercier wrote in a report to the police commission. But six officers "demonstrated some form of unacceptable conduct that warrants some form of discipline and/or counseling," he wrote.

The disciplinary report was one of Mercier's last official actions as acting chief before his retirement. The report is only a recommendation and is subject to review by the police board and by incoming Chief William Sencio.

"We will take it up, if not at our next meeting, perhaps at a special meeting," said Richard Judd, the police board chairman. Normally the chief has the authority to mete out discipline, but Judd said the board will review the matter because of the public scrutiny the case has received.

Trooper James Taylor was off-duty and driving his cruiser north on South Main Street a few minutes before 1 a.m. on May 2, 1993, when it crashed with a car driven by Lorraine Spranzo, 46. Spranzo died later that day. Taylor is awaiting trial on a charge of misconduct with a motor vehicle, a felony.

Local and state police have been criticized for the way the investigation was handled. City police let state police control the crash scene for about two hours, and Taylor was never given a sobriety test. He later admitted that he had been drinking beer at a social club that evening, but says he was not intoxicated.

Suggestions include counseling, or oral or written reprimands. In most cases, Mercier suggested that better judgment on the officers' part could have mitigated the perception that the department was engaging in a coverup, or trying to protect Taylor.

Any one of the mistakes that were made, if in isolation, probably would not have posed a serious problem, Mercier said. "It was the combination of everything," he said.